Fault Lines by Anne Rivers Siddons

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What was the author trying to do ? This book was very difficult to follow. It felt like I was reading several
short stores with the main character in each of the
stories. Merritt the sister become Mom. Merritt the wife become caretaker. Merritt the adventurist. Merritt the cry baby. Merritt the adulterous. Boy I could go on and on.

This book was such a disappointment.

I didn't care at all for the descriptions used for the area around the Santa Cruz Mountains and Big Basin or even for that matter the reference to Earthquakes. I'm a California native and know the area extremely well. I was personally affected by the Loma Prieta quake. There is nothing described in that incident that would be remotely close the what really happens. I think the author needs to experience a quake first hand.

Again, what a waste of time reading this book

ANOTHER GEM

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You've read the basic story line of this book so I won't waste your time writing it again. I will simply say that Rivers is an author that writes for women. Men could never understand the emotion she put into her stories that ring so true to women. She will make us laugh and make us
cry, make us cheer and make us groan..... and in the end we crave more.

For me, her stories are never long enough and she can't write fast enough to rid me of this craving for her wonderful, heartwarming stories. Take a chance. Buy the book and get ready for a good old fashioned, well written story that will take you away from your world and float you off into the one she so generously created for you.

My Fault for reading it

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This was by far the most ridiculous book I've ever read. "Neatly alternating earthquake lore with steamy sex scenes" ?? As a native Californian, I've never heard of earthquake lore! And the steamy sex scenes? Oh come on-- a married woman in her "mom jeans" and a circus freak is hardly steamy- it's kind of gross.

I can just see the pitch to the publisher: So it's about this enabling, spineless Southern do-gooder and her Pompous doctor husband (who wants to save the world) with a mentally sick mother and mentally sick daughter under their roof but are too self-abosrbed to notice, because Enabler is busy swimming with rats. Next, cut to cliched "run-away anorexic teen hiding out with understanding, hip/cool aunt" and add the middle-aged mom shedding her polyester pantsuit before sleeping with some circus freak (and his rat) in the hills, because anorexic teen is lands screen test with fictional Hollywood mega-producer? Meanwhile, beautiful/lost/angelic sister is .... I forget. Boffing director, and ending up on the cutting room floor? How fragile! How lost! Such beauty!
I still can't get over the married southern belle doing the circus freak/dwarf or whatever the heck he was. But of course, she "found herself" or some such nonsense when she had the guts to run away so that senile, fire-starting Mommee would be put into a nursing home.
This book was just stupid. Earthquake lore!!! LOL Steamy sex!! LOL
Also, how can they be sitting next to a roaring fire in Palm Springs, and then the next day say Los Angeles was all about sweltering, sweaty, heat? Palm Springs is generally 30-40 degrees HOTTER than Los Angeles.
Skip it!

Total Disappointment...

Rating:

It started out as a typical ARS plot--aging southern married
woman contemplates family life and ends up growing and learning.

But the overly sentimental characters were sickening after
awhile, and the plot became less believable as it progressed.

Tedious storyline--main character rhapsodizes about meeting
her wonderful husband, but typically falls for an ugly or
deformed man who's somehow beautiful inside, as the plot
progresses.

Why should we care about a hairy woodsman with a pet rat who
has a deathwish concerning California earthquakes? Like we
couldn't see his death coming. And could the main character
gush anymore about her love for her perfect beautiful daughter?
A potential Hollywood movie star at 14? Come on.

Cliches, cliches--the sweet gay man dying of AIDS, the self-
involved physician husband, the beloved, long-lost sister,
the sleazy Hollywood producers...can't Siddens do any better
than this?

I don't think I'll read her anymore, and its too bad...I loved
Downtown and Nora, Nora.

A promising premise but doesn't really satisfy

Rating:

This book has a lot of promising character work in it, but is undone by its own lack of subtlety. I was drawn in to the characters' lives during the first half of the book, and found myself caring about what happened with the mother-sister-daughter trio. My involvement remained, even though I was put off by the author's tendency to beat the reader over the head with points she felt were important. I could have gleaned much about the main character through her actions; instead, I was told, over and over, what kind of person she was. I kept wanting to edit those passages down -- "I get it already!"

Still, I was happily reading along. Unfortunately, a little more than midway through the book, the story grew more and more melodramatic. A relationship was developed -- a pivotal point for the main character -- but it pulled her out of the family context and into an overblown, false-feeling love story. Again, it's the author beating the reader over the head with what could have had more power through subtlety.

The book kept me reading, but I couldn't help but wish that these interesting characters were given a more thoughtful and restrained treatment.